


Divine Intervention

by lucylucky



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, House Party, Trindel, always down for trindel love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 06:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13475325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucylucky/pseuds/lucylucky
Summary: every crowd is lonely, and trina needs company at this godforsaken party... and maybe some revenge on her ex. so she finds some solace with a certain curly-headed stranger.





	Divine Intervention

Mendel does not go to parties. At least, that’s what he tells himself.

When he’s five cups of coffee into a study session, he convinces himself that it’s better than alcohol. When his classmates show up late to class with sunglasses and a temper, he pats himself on the back for being a model student. When his acquaintances brag about their “conquests,” he is quick to call them out on their stupidity.

But in the middle of a dark room thick and pungent with sweat and drinks and cheap perfume, he calls himself out on his alibi.

\-------------

Trina does not go to parties. At least, that’s what men told her.

Her father, directing her to never go to a party because she will get pregnant and ruin her life. Marvin, telling her to stay at home because he “didn’t like loose girls.” Besides, he said, there are more valuable things for you to do with your time.

(It didn’t help that he contracted syphilis after frequenting a party he asked her not to attend.)

But here she is, freed from the iron fist of her former lover, flanking the side of her friend at a stranger’s house, trying to fit in with the horde of grinding bodies and 19-year-old alcoholics. She’s downing cheap alcohol and hates the way it burns down her throat, but tries to revel in the feeling of liberation.

It’s like living a lucid nightmare.

\------------

Mendel clings to the wall, clutching his cup full of God knows what and holding on for dear life. He was dragged here by his friend, who claimed he needed a wingman. However, the moment that they passed through the door, his friend darted away and Mendel hasn’t seen him since. If it weren’t for the fact that they had taken his friend’s car to this house six miles from his dorm, Mendel would be long gone.

The flashing lights erupting from the living room prickle his eyes, making him feel like the ground is tipping beneath him. He stumbles into a hallway, just keeping his drink from drenching the dress of some girl looking just as dazed as he is.

“Excuse me,” he mutters. “Line to the bathroom?”

“Not really sure,” she responds with the slight slur of an impending buzz. “Just need a break, you know?”

“Well, then we--”

He stops with a start.

It’s her. The girl who sits in the row in front of him in Developmental Psych. The girl with the laugh that echoes to the back of his heart. The girl whose smile reaches so wide it could break her face in the most beautiful way. The girl who answers the professor with an inspired depth and transparency.

He notices she’s still wearing her Star of David necklace, the one that broke one day in class. Mendel had stooped to pick it up for her, and returned it with a brush of hands that buzzed in his fingers. His heart sang when she thanked him. And here he is, dumbfounded to find the beautiful girl from his class, tipsy in a hallway and talking as easy as anything and her looking so, so, so… spectacular in a dusty pink dress and the Star of David necklace that lays across her collarbone just right…

“Come here. Keep me company while I navigate this mess.”

\------------

Trina’s friend urged her to be sociable tonight, to meet people to comfort her in her recent rejection.

“You need to feel empowered for once,” her friend had said. “Get your mind out of the garbage you dated and see how great the world, and even men, can be.”

Well, she had better be proud, because here she is grabbing the hand of a mop-headed stranger and dragging him to the kitchen to refill her cup.

He has the look of someone familiar, with his strong nose and crooked smile. She tries to match his face to a name, but the music is bumping and pounding her head and she can’t keep her focus for two seconds.

In the kitchen, she turns to face him. “Hey, what are you drink--”

In that moment, Trina’s heart leaps to choke her in her throat when she looks over his shoulder.

It’s him. It’s Marvin in the living room, locked in the embrace of the man for whom he left her, breaking apart from a kiss to glance right into Trina’s eyes. He reacts with a smirk and can’t help himself from maintaining it.

No, not tonight. Trina will not let Marvin win and sneer and get away with leaving her, knowing that his power-hungry mind will wish Trina a lifetime of loneliness to assert his dominance. This will not be the night that Marvin wins the breakup with the man with whom he cheated.

She darts out her hand and pulls the stranger’s curly head in to her, colliding his lips into hers with a startling ferocity, hoping Marvin sees that she has moved on.

\------------

God is real, Mendel has decided. That’s the only way he can explain how he is kissing the girl he has admired from afar. Not only that, but she initiated the kiss. There must be some higher power to explain this.

But perhaps the only thing that is divine is the girl with whom he is furiously making out. She tangled her fingers in his hair and now he is grasped around her soft neck and the small of her back, as she kisses him fiercely and he savors the moment. He has always been self-conscious about his kissing abilities, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

Suddenly, she pulls back with a look of revelation. “Psych! With Dr. Adelstein! That’s where I know you. You sit in the row in front of me. Mendel, right?”

He snatches his hands away to run them through his hair in nervousness. So she didn’t even know him, displacing any hopes that she had a secret, burning lust for him throughout the semester. “Yeah, yeah, I guess…”

\------------

As Mendel writhes in bewilderment, she can’t help but glance at a furious Marvin. He huffs and resumes his business with his own boyfriend, trying once again to win. Trina can’t help but laugh, realizing the futility of this game.

But she did enjoy the kiss. She liked the gentle passion of Mendel’s touch and couldn’t help but want more.

“What do you say? Should we continue outside?” she asked with a flirtatious smirk.

He pauses in rapturous delight, then erupts into a smile as he takes her hand to drag her to the porch. “God, yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really a huge fanfic reader or writer, but I love Falsettos and thought it would be fun to make a little story to share. I love Trina and Mendel's relationship and this was a fun way to explore it! I hope you enjoyed it!


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